A PERSPECTIVE ON THE LATEST NEWS AND ISSUES

Post navigation

Who Knew Stephen Colbert Was a Faithful Christian?

THE JOY OF THE LORD, SAID THE COMEDIAN, IS THE ‘INFALLIBLE SIGN OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD.’

I’ve never really cared much for Stephen Colbert, whose cartoonish portrayal of a conservative political pundit has earned his Comedy Central show, “The Colbert Report,” three Emmy nominations from his politically liberal Hollywood peers.

But I discovered this past weekend that there is more to the comedian than I previously thought; something that even regular viewers of his satirical “news” show would find surprising.

Colbert is a man of faith.

A lifelong Catholic, the funnyman told an audience of some 3,000 students at FordhamUniversity, a Jesuit institution in the Bronx, New York, “I love my church – warts and all.”

I found particularly interesting a remark by Colbert that alluded to the familiar Scripture, “the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

The church, said Colbert, teaches joy. And joy, he said, is the “infallible sign of the presence of God.”

Colbert, a family man, a faithful churchgoer (who even teaches Sunday school at his New Jersey parish when his schedule permits) appeared at Fordham alongside New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. They teamed up for a panel on humor and spirituality.

Yet, for all his seeming irreverence, both on and off air, the comedian takes his faith seriously. That is a testament to the Christian values his mother imparted to him at a very young age.

“She taught me,” Colbert told The New York Times earlier this year, “to be grateful for my life regardless of what that entailed, and that’s directly related to the image of Christ on the cross and the example of sacrifice that He gave us.”

The future comedian’s mom also prepared him for the vicissitudes of life faced by believers and non-believers alike. “The deliverance God offers you from pain,” she told him, “is not no pain. It’s that the pain is actually a gift. What’s the option? God doesn’t really give you another choice.”

That’s rather profound thinking for a guy who tells jokes for a living; whom I dismissed as a typical Hollywood liberal hostile to political conservatives, contemptuous of faithful Christians.

I’m glad I was wrong about Colbert (at least with respect to his views on faith). I might even find time to tune in to his show.

6 thoughts on “Who Knew Stephen Colbert Was a Faithful Christian?”

Hmmm. I’ve never considered catholics to be Christians, so far have they strayed over the centuries from what Christ prescribed. All that made up nonsense, all that idolatry, all the praying to dead people, and the worship of others beside God Himself, all the “makeovers” that ignore what Christ said about “the only way to the Father, and Eternal Life being through Him.” Definitely not Christian.

Colbert is a man of faith as Romney is a man of faith, as an Imam is a man of faith but that kind of faith does not save you. Coming out of the Catholic religion and a former altar boy, I have first hand knowledge that it is a lost cause. One of the tenets of the Catholic religion is if you believe it is by faith alone that you are saved you are an anathema. So technically speaking, no one can truly be catholic and saved at the same time. Also, if you add to the cross of Christ you negate it’s power. Praying to Saints and to “the mother of god” certainly does that pretty well. The Bible is very clear on what saves you and none of the above mentioned subscribe to that.

I always wonder why people answer a Christian site anonymously but anyway, You are correct. That is what the scripture says. Now, let me explain what it means. I had cousins (four brothers) that had a mechanic shop. They worked with grease and oil. Whenever they showed up at a family function they always looked great. Except for their hands. They said for the grease to come out completely it had to grow out. So you could see their type of work by their hands. Christianity works the same way, you can say you have faith, but your life needs to show something that points to your Christianity.